AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Fortune Magazine.

The Nielsen Company, best known for measuring television audiences, hasn’t been immune from technology’s bulldozing of the media landscape. In a key step aimed at staying competitive, the company announced Monday that it would acquire IAG Research for $225 million.

The move is aimed at helping Nielsen’s advertising customers to better assess the effectiveness of their ads. On top of providing raw television or online audience numbers, Nielsen will now have data on how consumers respond to ads on television shows and online.

The IAG acquisition comes at a critical time for Nielsen and for advertisers. Nielsen, which says its research influences some $70 billion in annual advertising, has been threatened with obsolescence in the face of ad-skipping technologies like digital video recorders.

And as the economy has soured, so too has advertising spending. Ad spending grew an anemic 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, its slowest pace in five years, and is expected to be sluggish in 2008, according to Bernstein Research. Meanwhile, online advertising surged 27 percent to $25.5 billion last year, according to research firm International Data Corp. …more…